Modi, The Great Disruptor

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October 30, 2014 21:21 IST

'Modi, focused on youth and their aspirations, has articulated a truly disruptive change: One of hope, of duties rather than rights, of standing up to the world instead of being bullied by it,' says Rajeev Srinivasan.

As I write this on Diwali day, an Indian prime minister spent the day with the troops on the Siachen glacier. Furthermore, Narendra Modi cancelled all celebrations, and instead visited victims of severe floods in Jammu & Kashmir. In addition, there is speculation that he will soon visit the shrine at Sabarimala in Kerala. All these, if I am not mistaken, are first-time acts for Indian PMs.

And they are symbolic: He is thanking the soldiers whom the nation owes a debt of gratitude; he is telling Kashmiris on this most important festival in the Hindu calendar, that they too are part of the national fabric despite the fact that some of them are religious fanatics and separatists; and by going on the difficult climb up vertiginous hills to Sabarimala he will reaffirm that he is a humble, ordinary Hindu, the chaiwallah taunt that he deftly turned into a badge of honour.

Modi is a thoroughly 21st century leader, who knows the power of symbols and of the Internet. He realises that whatever he does will be instantly analysed and judged by hundreds of thousands of both his loyal supporters and critical detractors.

For instance, within minutes of his government announcing that it wouldn't be able to reveal the names of those who had secret Swiss accounts, even long-term fans criticised him on Twitter and Facebook.

The age of instant communication has made it possible for the PM to, in effect, reach out directly to the people without the usual paraphernalia of press conferences, press releases, weighty op-eds and talking heads discussing big things on television. He is going over the heads of the intermediaries, rendering them largely superfluous. And about time too: I read somewhere that there is a G-37, a gang of the same 37 'experts' in Delhi who are trotted out to analyse anything and everything on television chat shows, including things they have absolutely no knowledge of or experience in.

And Modi is undoubtedly a Great Communicator. In full flow in Hindi, he is a spell-binding orator, mesmerising even someone like me who knows little Hindi and no Urdu. He has the audience in the palm of his hand, and he can make the language dance, sing, do somersaults, whatever he pleases. He has a magnetic personality, somewhat akin to Apple founder Steve Jobs with his 'reality-distortion field.' You want to believe in him, and you do. Modi is larger than life: and it is not just Indians who fall under his spell.

Events in the recent past have made it clear that the Narendra Modi government is serious about India's military and geopolitical ambitions. It is a truism that a blue-water navy that can project power over long distances is a necessity for any major power, especially one with global ambitions. Equally, it is clear that any power worth its salt has to deter other powers from doing things that would hurt its geopolitically.

In this context, Vietnam becomes significant for India for several reasons. It is clear that India's most important enemy is China, which has embarked on a 'string-of-pearls' strategy to surround and contain India in a "South-Asia" ghetto of sorts (incidentally, the Chinese have been the most enthusiastic propagators of that meaningless term in an attempt to dilute India's fairly good and historical brand, while they aggressively push the 'Greater China' brand, notably not an 'East Asia' brand.)

PM Narendra Modi with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Agencies

Vietnam is possibly the most potent of China's neighbors in terms of military skills; at any rate it is the only one to have defeated China in battle recently. In 1979, China invaded Vietnam (coincidentally while India's then foreign minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was visiting Beijing, in what amounted to a diplomatic slap in the face for India). But the battle-hardened Vietnamese were more than a match for the Chinese, who were forced to withdraw with a bloody nose.

Secondly, the Vietnamese are currently victimized by Chinese aggression in the South China Sea, which the Chinese consider their private lake, where they have deemed a vague "9-dash line" citing obscure old maps as the limit of their exclusive economic zone. In effect, they claim most of the sea, putting them in conflict with Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan (which has historical claims to some of the islands) and everybody else with interests there.

Anyone can see that India's inflation is not due to hyperactive demand from the masses and an overheating economy. On the contrary, inflation in India is due to lack of production - we just don't produce enough of the things that we need, and that's what's driving prices high, not excessive demand. The way to address this is through policies aimed at growing the supply side of the economy. High interest rates only constrain the economy as a whole. We can't keep treating legitimate demand as excessive.

The Problem With M/s Mishra and; Roy: Pankaj admires Jamaluddin Afghani and his fantasies of Muslim power and its conquering warriors so much, he promoted him as one of the great thinkers of Asia in his last book. This is a recurring pattern. Strong men and their cults become heroic and admirable when an “anti-Western” gloss can be put on them, especially if they are not Hindus.

Ramnad Address: This is the motherland of philosophy, of spirituality, and of ethics, of sweetness, gentleness, and love. These still exist, and my experience of the world leads me to stand on firm ground and make the bold statement that India is still the first and foremost of all the nations of the world in these respects.

I have heard it said that our masses are dense, that they do not want any education, and that they do not care for any information. I had at one time a foolish leaning towards that opinion myself, but I find experience is a far more glorious teacher than any amount of speculation, or any amount of books written by globe-trotters and hasty observers. This experience teaches me that they are not dense, that they are not slow, that they are as eager and thirsty for information as any race under the sun; but then each nation has its own part to play, and naturally, each nation has its own peculiarity and individuality with which it is born. Each represents, as it were, one peculiar note in this harmony of nations, and this is its very life, its vitality. In it is the backbone, the foundation, and the bed-rock of the national life, and here in this blessed land, the foundation, the backbone, the life-center is religion and religion alone. Let others talk of politics, of the glory of acquisition of immense wealth poured in by trade, of the power and spread of commercialism, of the glorious fountain of physical liberty; but these the Hindu mind does not understand and does not want to understand. Touch him on spirituality, on religion, on God, on the soul, on the Infinite, on spiritual freedom, and I assure you, the lowest peasant in India is better informed on these subjects than many a so-called philosopher in other lands.

I have said, gentlemen, that we have yet something to teach to the world. This is the very reason, the raison d'être, that this nation has lived on, in spite of hundreds of years of persecution, in spite of nearly a thousand year of foreign rule and foreign oppression. This nation still lives; the raison d'être is it still holds to God, to the treasure-house of religion and spirituality.

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On 26 October 1947, the princely state of Jammu & Kashmir formally became a part of the Indian Union. Pakistan never accepted the decision of Maharaja Hari Singh, who was legally empowered to sign the instrument of accession, as final. It has repeatedly tried to use force and terrorism to change the status quo, in the process muddying the issue.

Whenever the issues of J&K's accession to India and Article 370 are raised, emotions run high. Information is cherry picked, arguments are aggressive and thus, a meaningful discussion becomes impossible.

For easy reading essay is split into ten parts. Matter covered in each part is given below.

Part 1 deals with Accession of J&K toanswer the following questions: Can Maharaja Hari Singh be accused of procrastinating on whether to join India or Pakistan? Why has India not held a plebiscite in J&K? Did the British provide tacit support to Pakistan in POJK and Gilgit / Baltisthan? Why was J&K important to Pakistan? What is the importance of Aksai Chin (part of undivided J&K) to China? Can the Accession of J&K to India be reversed?

Part 2focuses on answers to questions on article 370: Was J&K the only State to draft its own Constitution? Was Article 370 promised at the time of signing IOA? If Article 370 is repealed, would J&K cease to be part of India, as the National Conference and some separatist groups are claiming today? Could Nehru have forced the State to merge with the Constitution of India like other States? Could Nehru's Government have cleared J&K of Pakistan occupation? Is Article 370 a temporary provision?What are the provisions of Article 370 in brief?Isit correct to justify Article 370 by referring to exclusive provisions of Article 371?

Part three seeks to answer questions on the first elections in J&K and Sheikh Abdullah's arrest in 1953: Was any Census conducted in 1951 before deciding the Electoral Districts? What was the basis for allocating seats between Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh regions? What were the results of the 1951 Election?What about the 1952 Agreement and Sheikh Abdullah's arrest? Why was Sheikh Abdullah and 25 others arrested in 1953? What about the new Constitution and 1957 elections?

Part 4 tells us about the order of 1954. It askswhich parts of the Indian Constitution apply to J&K and raises an important question on whether Article 35A forms part of the Constitution.

Part 5 talks about which laws not applicable in J&K. Does Article 370 prevent anyone from buying property in the State? What about women's rights in J&K?

Part 6 focuses on who is a Permanent Resident of J&K? What are benefits conferred to Permanent Residents and implications thereof?

Part 7talks ofthe population and delimitationof constituencies. What is the region wise population since 1951? What are the comparisons of population and Census numbers post 2001?

Have assembly seats been manipulated to give Kashmir valley control of the legislature?

Part 8 looks at lopsided development of Jammu and Ladakh. We also ask, why are some separatist leaders against return of Pandits to the Valley? Why are Kashmiri Pandits reluctant to return to the Valley? It also gives details of how residents of Jammu and Ladakh regions are discriminated against.

Part 9 looks at State Finances. We can look at questions like these:is the state of J&K discriminated against by the Centre? What do the state's budget numbers for the years 2009-10 to 2014-15 suggest? What is the breakup of Revenue Expenditure for the years 2009-10 to 2014-15?

Part 10 is a summary and conclusion and seeks to answer the question: Is there a solution to Jammu & Kashmir, Pakistan would not be satisfied?

Online education provider Udacity has come up with the concept of "nanodegrees" - specialized training in a hi-tech skillset which prepares you for a specific "new economy" job, in a shorter-duration and lower-cost format:

I've been liking Rand Paul a lot, but Jeb Bush could be another good choice. He had a good track record as governor of Florida, and was considered by his father to be the son more suited for politics. Assuming that Hillary Clinton gets nominated as the Democrat candidate, either of these men could have good prospects.

I still can't get over the fact that all the same culprits shrieking against "evil right-wing" politicians in Asia -- I'm talking about NYT, Economist, Financial Times, etc -- have been just as loudly shrieking against Leftist politicians in Latin America. Ah, the imperial imperatives of the Atlanticists. How frustrated they must feel right now.

Mangal din aaj, Banna ghar aayo Such an Auspicious beautiful day it is, for He has come home Aanand man-bharaa, baanwari bhayi mai to heart filled with happiness, I have lost my mind with Joy Banna ra mukh dekhan sahelyo mil aayo To see his face, I came with all my friends (women folk) Gaavan lagi geet, baanwari bhai﻿ mai to I started Singing this song..For my love has driven me mad Mangal din aaj Such an Auspicious beautiful day

Russians embrace Hinduism: Disciples of Sri Sri Ravishankar, they embraced Hinduism some time back and are zealous to
spread the values enshrined in the religion across India’s countryside.

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Tata's Nano, originally heralded as a miracle of frugal innovation, has ended up being passed over by brand-conscious Indian consumers, but a new version with power steering hopes to make a comeback in the marketplace:

Note that this is an electro-mechanical power steering system based on a brushless motor co-developed with Bosch. At least they've avoided old-generation hydraulics for the more reliable latest-generation technology.

UPDATE: It looks like India was involved in this after all - our very same Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) which launched its own balloon to the mesosphere also worked on this latest space jump project:

Sreenivasan Shankarnarayan, Scientist in Charge (retired), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR): Since
its inception in 1970, the TIFR Balloon Facility, located in
Hyderabad, India has been used extensively by the Scientific Community
from within the country as well as from abroad. All of the balloons for
the StratEx program were manufactured by Balloon Facility off the Tata
Institute of Fundamental Research, Hyderabad, India. Balloon Flights
carrying payloads of scientific experiments in Cosmic Ray, X-Ray, Gamma
Ray and Infrared Astronomy, Astrobiology as well as Atmospheric
sciences have been launched from this facility with several important
and interesting results being obtained. TIFR is unique in that it has
all aspects of Scientific Ballooning i.e. Balloon Design and
Fabrication, Payload Integration with Telemetry, Telecommand and other
instrumentation, and finally Balloon Launch, Tracking, Data
Collection, Balloon Flight Control, as also Payload Recovery, under one
roof. For more information please click here.

If TIFR's unique expertise in high-altitude balloon experiments was the basis for this latest space jump, then why can't such endeavours be undertaken in India also? We already have these useless racecar teams like "Force India", etc, which provide no benefit to the country. However, an annual "space jump" event in India could continue to raise the profile of the country in relation to spaceflight, while also conducting useful experiments. We could even claim a bit of the space tourism market with such low-cost space jumps, or at least the extreme adventure sports market. How many people around the world are there who would love to suit up in a spacesuit and travel to the edge of space? Plenty of them would gladly queue up and pay up -- especially if they could boast of contributing to the development and testing of spacesuit technology. Why can't TIFR's expertise be usefully monetized here?

Since the Indian govt is busily applying information technology to so many aspects of governance, it might focus more attention on applying the fruits of information technology towards agricultural productivity, since farming is a mainstay of the Indian economy and India is a food-constrained country.

Mishra's ranting demagoguery against "fascism" not only targets Modi, but now extends to Swami Vivekananda. Take a look at the comments section for the article, and you'll see it triggered a lot of outrage.

Just as a contrast, it's worth reading another op-ed piece NYT has published regarding Brazil's upcoming elections:

As we can see, while the NYT never misses an opportunity to support regressive Marxist politicians in India and Asia, it absolutely loathes any politicians with similar views in Latin America. Note that the same economic policies advocated by Modi in India which the NYT criticizes and despises, are fiercely defended by the NYT when expressed by right-wing politicians in Latin America. So we can see that the NYT practices a cunning policy of double standards. When critiquing politics in Asia, then the NYT fiercely defends leftism and strongly condemns economic liberalism. But when it's politics in Latin America, then the NYT goes in the exact opposite direction, defending economic conservatism while fiercely attacking socialists.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Best wishes to all Hindu brothers on Deepavali in the Gregorian year 2014.

May this be a harbinger of peace, prosperity and happiness to you all.

Our nation and civilization is faced with many challenges, including existential ones. The world is going through turbulent times, triggered by the rise of extreme medieval ideologies. India cannot remain immune from these for long.

For the first time in many decades, Hindus around the world are energized with hope and pride due to the epochal victory of nationalist forces under the dynamic leadership of Narendra bhai Modi.

Let us spare a thought also for those less fortunate than us - Hindu Minorities facing persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh and many parts of India proper and destitute Hindus with poverty forced upon them by 1300 years of slavery, 7 decades of Nehruvian Stalinism and targeted by Missionary vultures for soul harvesting.

Suggested Diwali Resolutions – 1. We must export Arms and Missiles as a matter of State Policy. 2. We must promote indigenous manufacture of defence equipment. 3. We must finalise defence contracts to make up for the 10 lost years. 4. We must refer to Tibet as Chinese occupied Tibet, Akshai Chin as Chinese occupied J&K, POK as POJK and Gilgit/Baltisthan as Northern Areas. 5. We must convince Media to stop being obsessed with Pakistan. 6. We must work towards reducing infiltration from Bangladesh and smuggling of cows thru our borders. 7. We must singularly work towards reviving Economic Growth. 8. We must have more colleges and schools in Arunachal Pradesh, have more Arunachali Scouts teams and improve border patrol. 9. Infrastructure and border patrolling in Ladakh needs to be top class. 10. We must stop being defensive about J&K, the word Plebiscite. and more.

'The prime minister had 35 structured meetings during those 70 hours, not including the now well known speeches at the Madison Square Garden, the US-India Business Council and the Council for Foreign Relations plus the appearance at the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park. How does anyone do so much on an empty stomach? America is still waiting for an answer.'

'The gesture by the US has distressed India as the new project is to be launched in Gilgit-Baltistan, which India perceives to be illegally occupied by Islamabad.'

My take – India must start working on a Plan to review and possibly rescind the Indus Water Treaty. India cannot honor signed agreements (recently told that treaty was never signed) when Pakistan refuses to. For starters India must use all water the Treaty allows it to.

'There were over 30 religious militant organizations have set up their network in Bangladesh since 1989 with the central objective of establishing an Islamic state, as per source. They are hundred percent Islamic and follower of Allah, Quran and Muhammad. All of them have given armed training to their members to conduct ultimate jihad against Kaffirs and non-Muslim civilization.'

The disparity between the rich and everyone else is larger than ever in the United States and increasing in much of Europe. Why?

By David Rotman on October 21, 2014

e signs of the gap—really, a chasm—between the poor and the super-rich are hard to miss in Silicon Valley. On a bustling morning in downtown Palo Alto, the center of today's technology boom, apparently homeless people and their meager belongings occupy almost every available public bench. Twenty minutes away in San Jose, the largest city in the Valley, a camp of homeless people known as the Jungle—reputed to be the largest in the country—has taken root along a creek within walking distance of Adobe's headquarters and the gleaming, ultramodern city hall.

The homeless are the most visible signs of poverty in the region. But the numbers back up first impressions. Median income in Silicon Valley reached $94,000 in 2013, far above the national median of around $53,000. Yet an estimated 31 percent of jobs pay $16 per hour or less, below what is needed to support a family in an area with notoriously expensive housing. The poverty rate in Santa Clara County, the heart of Silicon Valley, is around 19 percent, according to calculations that factor in the high cost of living.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Organized labour in many sectors don't represent the masses, but are simply running an organized racket, using their position to create bottlenecks and deprivation for everyone else - Coal Indian Ltd is an example of that:

Monday, October 20, 2014

The 2016 Rajya Sabha elections are crucial to enable passage of more reforms, since a number of seats are up for grabs at this time. Right now, BJP's strength in the upper house are poor, and Congress is able to block pro-reform measures:

Congress, having 68 MPs in Rajya Sabha, had forced the government to
send the bill to a select committee of Parliament for further
examination without extending any solid reason for doing so. The
Congress's move in August, as interpreted by political observers, was
just to delay passing this key legislation for a couple of months as it
did not want to give Modi a handle to scale up his pro-reform position
when he was to land in the US in September.

With the latest regional elections out of the way, the govt seems to be wasting no time to rolling out some significant reforms. The govt's weakness in the Rajya Sabha is a key roadblock that has to be overcome, in order to ensure that further reform legislation is able to make it through undiluted.

Well, it's good for our economy, anyway - the only downside being Putin leaning towards China at our expense, to shore himself up. We'd better make use of the oil respite to get our economic reforms rolling.

A return to market control over fuel prices will remove a huge deficit contributor, and create an impetus for more efficiency in fuel markets. Modi needs to keep up the momentum, so that he can continue to draw in capital inflows into the country, and fuel even faster growth. Economic growth is likely to be above 5% for this year, but we can do better - India has to, if it's going to throw off the legacy of Nehruvian basketcasery.

Department
of Telecom to use the Aadhar card as valid proof of address for mobile
subscribers - See more at:
http://www.igovernment.in/igov/news/1000281/mha-raises-concern-aadhaar-add-proof-telecom#sthash.5rOrzun3.dpuf

Department
of Telecom to use the Aadhar card as valid proof of address for mobile
subscribers - See more at:
http://www.igovernment.in/igov/news/1000281/mha-raises-concern-aadhaar-add-proof-telecom#sthash.5rOrzun3.dpuf